Sam Spade (Character) Sam Spade (Character) There may be more photos available for this character. To select more photos to be displayed in this character's gallery, click the Edit Photos link. Overview Like most of Dashiell Hammett's detective characters... See more » Alternate Names: Detective Sam Spade / Sam Spade Jr. / Sam Spade and the Private Eyes / Samuel Spade / Ted Shane / Voice of Sam Spade on Radio Show Filmography Brigid O'Shaughnessy : I do know he always went heavily armed, and that he never went to sleep without covering the floor around his bed with crumpled newspapers, so that nobody could come silently into his room. Sam Spade : You picked a nice sort of a playmate. Brigid O'Shaughnessy : Only that sort could have helped me, if he'd been loyal. Sam Spade Sam Spade Created by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) "When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't matter what you thought of him.

He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it." The original blonde Satan, Dashiell Hammett's SAM SPADE is surely one of the most important figures in the entire private eye genre. He made his debut in 1929 in the pages of Black Mask, in the serialized first part of The Maltese Falcon, and the genre has never been the same. He's a "hard and shifty fellow," a partner in the Archer and Spade Detective Agency of San Francisco. He doesn't particularly like his partner, and he's not above sleeping with his wife, but when Miles is murdered, he swings into action, and ends up mixed up with a quest for a priceless statuette, a rara-avis, called the Maltese Falcon. Collected and published in book form, the novel was a bestseller when it first appeared, and remains one of the true classics of the genre, a vastly-influential piece of work, featuring one of the very first P.I.s "with his own private, unorthodox, but absolutely inviolable code of ethics," according to William DeAndrea, in his Encyclopedia Mysteriosa . But it's biggest impact was undoubtedly in another medium.

The Maltese Falcon may have left its stamp on literature, but it also became one of the most popular and important films in history. Mind you, it took awhile. It was filmed twice before rookie director John Huston finally released the definitive version in 1941. The first attempt, starring Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade was a solid, if unspectacular film. Cortez played Spade as a smirking womanizer, too smug to possibly be taken seriously. But the women in it were well cast, and easy on the eyes. The film was flawed by an anti-climatic jailhouse ending that merely reinforced the notion of Spade as something of a shit. The worst thing about the 1931 version is the awful anti-climatic last scene in the prison. But there was a lot I liked about this version. I liked the guy who played Archer --his being much older than Iva made sense. And I did like the fact Spade at least appeared to have a sex drive (which made him even more credible as a shit to Iva than Bogart was).

I thought the women on the whole were more believable (and a whole lot sexier) and the exposition a lot clearer (even if some of the book was MIA). But what struck me the most was how much Huston's version followed this one. The identical camera angles, the set-ups, the framing of shots -- even the way the lines were read are often exactly the same. And the 1941 cast looks like it was chosen for its resemblance to the 1931 originals. It's like they filmed the rehearsal and ten years later Huston tidied up the rough edges. I'm beginning to think the whole story about Huston handing his secretary Hammett's book, and telling her to type up just the dialogue is a crock. I think possibly he gave her the earlier script, and told her to put his name on it. then he went back and put in some of the missing scenes. The second version, Satan Met a Lady (Warner Bros., 1936), seemed "incapable of deciding whether to be a screwball comedy or a murder mystery" Many changes were made to the original plot, the characters, even the title. None were for the better.

Sam Spade is now Ted Shane , the Fat Man is now the Fat Lady, Bette Davis is lack lustre as Miss Wonderly, and the Black Bird is now a ram's horn. Generally considered poorly acted, forced and dull. Intended, perhaps, as a spoof, but of what? Warren William as Spade had possibly the biggest head in Hollywood, but so what? At the end of the film, having finally grabbed the bejewelled horn, he gives it a tentative toot. "Honey, it blows," he informs Miss Wonderly. I know how he feels. The third time was the charm. The Maltese Falcon, released in 1941 by Warner Brothers, written and directed by John Huston, and starring Humphrey Bogart as Spade was an amazing, powerful piece of work. Okay, Bogey didn't match the description of Spade in the book. He was too small and too dark, but can anyone ever picture anyone else ever playing Spade? In fact, Bogart was so good as Spade, that his later appearance as Chandler's Philip Marlowe never seemed right to me.

Add a memorable cast of colourful characters (with Mary Astor as Bridgid O'Shaugnessy, Lee Patrick as Effie Perine, Sydney Greenstreet as Casper Gutman, Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo and Elisha Cook Jr. as Wilmer Cook) and a taut moody screenplay that was essentially the novel itself, and you've got the making of the archetypical private eye film. Decades later, film makers are still trying to crawl out from its shadow. The film proved to be such a success that Sam Spade started showing up all over. Three short stories written by Hammett and published back in the early thirties (all pretty weak, compared to The Maltese Falcon), were collected and published in book form. There was even a plan to do a sequel with Bogart and the rest, but it nevercame to fruition. A comic sequel, The Black Bird , with George Segal as Sam Spade's son, spoofed the original in the early '70s.

In 1946, The Maltese Falcon was presented in comic book form, adapted by Rodlow Williard, published by David McKay, as Feature Book #48, The adaptation was supposedly quite well-done, very faithful to both the book and the film. And in the forties, Spade was a staple of the airwaves, thanks to The Adventures of Sam Spade, a popular radio show, featuring Howard Duff in the lead role, and sponsored by Wildroot Hair Oil. In fact, a series of single-page comic strip/hair tonic ads appeared in magazines, newspapers and comic books, featuring Spade shilling for Wildroot Hair Oil. (The ads were drawn by Golden Age artist Lou Fine, who later went on to do the Peter Scratch comic strip.) In fact, the only real sequel to The Maltese Falcon was not produced for either prose or film, though, but for radio. Both The Adventures of Sam Spade and the great mystery anthology show Suspense were both produced by the same man, William Speir. During the first year or two that Sam Spade was on the air, Suspense was an hour show, hosted by Robert Montgomery.

To get fans of Suspense listening to Sam Spade, Speir produced a special one-hour Spade episode called "The Khandi Tooth Caper" and aired it on Suspense. The episode is a direct sequel to The Maltese Falcon, with Spade once again meeting Gutman, Cairo, and another "gunsel." It explains what happened to the real Falcon, alludes to Brigid O'Shaugnessy's fate, and sets Spade and the bad guys at odds as they again contend in the search for another quest object, the fabled Khandi Tooth. As an inside joke, host Montgomery, who played Philip Marlowe in the screen version of The Lady in the Lake made a cameo appearance as Marlowe in the episode. Later, the episode was presented as a two-parter on Sam Spade's own series. It's available from various radio nostalgia dealers if you're interested in hearing it. When Hammett and his political views fell out of favor and landed him in hot water during the McCarthy witchhunts in the fifties, the radio show promptly pretended Hammett didn't exist.

Sam Spade was now Charlie Wild , the show was retitled Charlie Wild, Private Eye (to cash in on Wildroots commercial slogan: "Get Wildroot Cream Oil, Charlie") and all connections to Hammett were dropped. But it was the same cast, the same characters (with different names), the same hair tonic sponsor, etc. And it was Charlie Wild, not Sam Spade, who eventually made the jump to television. Hammett's one of the seminal creators in detective fiction. As if writing The Maltese Falcon wasn't enough, he was also responsible for The Continental Op and The Thin Man, the novel that introduced husband and wife sleuths Nick and Nora Charles to the world, and became the basis for a string of popular movies. Hammett also created and wrote (or at least lent his name to) Brad Runyon, The Fat Man for radio. ... "Don't be so sure I'm as crooked as I'm supposed to be." "Childish, huh? I know, but, by God, I do hate being hit without hitting back." "Here.

A crippled newsie took these away from him, but I made him give them back." -- Spade delivering a subdued Wilmer and his guns to Gutman. UNDER OATH "I re-read The Maltese Falcon every year and each time discover new things to admire. Can't beat it. The Maltese Falcon (1930)...

Buy this book ALSO OF INTEREST "The Maltese Falcon, Part 1" (September 1929, Black Mask) "The Maltese Falcon, Part 2" (October 1929, Black Mask) "The Maltese Falcon, Part 3" (November 1929, Black Mask) "The Maltese Falcon, Part 4" (December 1929, Black Mask) "The Maltese Falcon, Part 5" (January 1930, Black Mask) "A Man Called Spade" (1932, The American Magazine; also in A Man Named Spade and Other Stories) "Too Many Have Lived" (1932, The American Magazine; also in A Man Named Spade and Other Stories) "They Can Only Hang You Once" (1932, The American Magazine; also in A Man Named Spade and Other Stories) COLLECTION The Adventures of Sam Spade and Other Stories (1944) A Man Called Spade (1945) FILM Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett Screenplay by Maude Fulton, Lucien Hubbard, Brown Holmes Directed

 by Roy del Ruth Starring Ricardo Cordez as SAM SPADE with Bebe Daniels as Ruth Wonderly Dudley Digges as Casper Gutman Dwight Fry as Wilmer Otto Matiesen as Joel Cairo Una Merkel as Effie Perine Also starring Robert Elliot, Thelma Todd, Walter Long, J.

Farrell MacDonald Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett Screenplay by Brown Holmes Starring Warren William as TED SHANE (Sam Spade) Alison Skipworth as Madame Barabas (Caspar Gutman) and Bette Davis as Valerie Purvis (Miss Wonderly) Also starring Arthur Treacher, Winifred Shaw, Marie Wilson, Porter Hall, Olin Howlin, Charles C. Wilson, Barbara Blane, Maynard Holmes Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett Screenplay by John Huston Exectutive Producer: Hal B. Wallis Starring Humphrey Bogart as SAM SPADE with Mary Astor as Bridgid O'Shaugnessy Lee Patrick as Effie Perine Sydney Greenstreet as Casper Gutman Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo Elisha Cook Jr.

as Wilmer Cook Also starring Gladys George, Barton MacLane, Ward Bond, Jerome Cowan, James Burke, John Hamilton, Emory Parnell and Walter Huston as Captain Jacobi See also THE BLACK BIRD (1975, Columbia) A sorta sequel, sorta spoof of The Maltese Falcon, with Sam Spade's son hot on the trail of "the Black Bird." RADIO LUX RADIO THEATRE: THE MALTESE FALCON (1943, CBS) Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett Starring Edward G. Robinson as SAM SPADE Also starring Laird Cregar as Casper Gutman The first radio adaptation of the Hammett classic, making Robinson the first (although certainly not the last) radio SAM SPADE. Generally considered far superior to the 1946 Academy Award Theatre version with Humphrey Bogart.

Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett Starring Humphrey Bogart as SAM SPADE with Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet The second radio version of the classic novel, this time performed by the stars of John Huston's film, but crammed into thirty minutes, it's reportedly nothing but sad, sad, sad. The 1943 Lux Radio Theatre version is generally considered far superior. But reader Bob Toomey begs to differ: "I think the Academy Award Theatre version is the better one. Lux had an hour to do the show, but it just doesn't capture the feel for the story the way this version does -- although Edward G.

Robinson and Laird Cregar are interesting as Spade and Gutman." THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE (1946, ABC) Writers: Jason James, Bob Tallman Starring Howard Duff as SAM SPADE with Lurene Tuttle as Effie (Duff replaced on some occasions by Stephen Dunne) "Sam And The Guiana Sovereign" (July 12, 1946) "Sam And The Farewell Murders" (July 19, 1946) "Sam And The Unhappy Poet" (July 26, 1946) "Sam And Psyche" (August 2, 1946) "Death And Company" (August 09, 1946) "Two Sharp Knives" (August 16, 1946) "Zig Zags Of Treachery" (August 23, 1946) "Sam And The Scythian Tiara" (August 30, 1946) "The Corporation Murders" (September 6, 1946) "The Dot Marlow Caper, Part 

1" (September 13, 1946) "The Dot Marlow Caper, Part 2"(September 20, 1946) "The Count On Billy Burke" (September 27, 1946) "The Gutting Of Couffignal" (October 4, 1946) In 1947, writers Jason James and Bob Tallman received an ﻿Edgar Award for Best Radio Drama from the ﻿Mystery Writers of America for their work on this show.

THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE (1946-49, CBS) Starring Howard Duff as SAM SPADE with Lurene Tuttle as Effie Guest stars: Sandra Gould (played the "new secretary" while Lurene Tuttle was on vacation, in the June 27, 1948 show), William Conrad, Jack Webb.

"The Blood Money Caper" (September 29, 1946) "The Unwritten Law Caper" (October 6, 1946) "The Ten Clues Caper" (October 13, 1946) "The Fly Paper Caper" (October 20, 1946) "The Midway Caper" (October 27, 1946) "The Certified Czech Caper" (November 3, 1946) "Sam And The Farewell Murders" (November 10, 1946) "The Hot Ice Caper" (November 17, 1946) "The Kandy Tooth Caper, Part 1" (November 24, 1946; (originally aired on Suspense ) "The Kandy Tooth Caper, Part 2" (December 1, 1946) "The Minks Of Turk Street" (December 8, 1946) "The Picture Frame Caper" (December 15, 1946) "Sam And The Three Wise Men" (December

 22, 1946) "The Golden Horeshoe" (December 29, 1946) "The Liewelyn Caper" (January 5, 1947) "The Cremona Clock Caper" (January 12, 1947) "The False Face Caper" (January 19, 1947) "The Agamemnon Caper" (January 26, 1947) "The Dead Duck Caper" (February 2 1947) "The Girl With The Silver Eyes" (February 9, 1947) "Inside Story On Kid Slade" (February 16, 1947) "The Big Production Caper" (February 23, 1947) "The Uncle Money Caper" (March 2 1947) "Orpheus And His Lute" (March 9, 1947) "The Ingnorance About Bliss" (March 16, 1947) "Too Many Spades" (March 23, 1

947) "The Dancing Pearl Caper" (March 30, 1947) "The Poisonville Caper" (April 6, 1947) "The Double-Scar Caper" (April 13, 1947) "The Scrooge Of Portrero Street" (April 20, 1947) "The Debutante Caper" (April 27, 1947) "Duet In Spades" (May 4, 1947) "The Yule Log Caper" (May 11, 1947) "The Assistant Murderer" (May 18, 1947) "Jury Duty" (May 25, 1947) "The Mishakoff Emeralds" (June 1, 1947) "The Calcutta Trunk Caper" (June 8, 1947) "The Convertible Caper" (June 15, 1947) "The Greek Letter Caper" (June 22, 1947) "

The Cosmic Harmony Caper" (June 29, 1947) "The Simile Caper" (July 6, 1947) "The Buff-Orpington Caper" (July 13, 1947) "Sam And The Unhappy Poet" (July 20, 1947) "The Gold Rush Caper" (July 27, 1947) "The Crooked Neck Caper" (August 3, 1947) "The Commonwealth Tankard" (August 10, 1947) "The Doctor's Dilemma Caper" (August 17, 1947) "The Jade Dragon Caper" (August 24, 1947) "The Corkscrew Caper" (August 31, 1947) "The Forty-Nine Cent, Caper" (September 7, 1947) "The Cinderella Caper" (September 14, 1947) "The April Caper" (September 21, 1947) "The

 Madcap Caper" (September 28, 1947) "The Adam Figg Caper" (October 5, 1947) "The Tears Of Buddha Caper" (October 12, 1947) "The Untouchable Caper" (October 19, 1947) "The Bonnie Fair Caper" (October 26, 1947) "The Wrong Guy Caper" (November 2 1947) "The Bow Window Caper" (November 9, 1947) "The Purple Poodle Caper" (November 16, 1947) "The Caper With Eight Diamonds" (November 23, 1947) "The Full House Caper" (November 30, 1947) "The Palermo Vendetta Caper" (December 7, 1947) "The Gumshoe Caper" (December 14, 1947) "The Nick Saint Caper" (December 21, 1947) "The Perfect Score Caper" (

December 28, 1947) "The One Hour Caper" (January 4, 1948) "The Short Life Caper" (January 11, 1948) "The Pike's Head Caper" (January 18, 1948) "The Gold Key Caper" (January 25, 1948) "The Nimrod Caper" (February 1 1948) "The Great Drought Caper" (February 8, 1948) "The Goldie Gates Caper" (February 15, 1948) "The Mason Grayson Caper" (February 22, 1948) "The Grim Reaper Caper" (February 29, 1948) "John's Other Wife's Other Husband"(March 7, 1948) "The Ides Of March Caper" (March 14, 1948) "The Nightmare Town Caper" (March 21, 1948) "The Blood Money Payoff" (March 28, 1

948) "Title Unknown" (April 4, 1948) "The Judas Caper" (April 11, 1948) "The Night Flight Caper" (April 18, 1948) "The Great Lover Caper" (April 25, 1948) "The Double-S Caper" (May 2 1948) "The Curiosity Caper" (May 9, 1948) "The Girl Called Echs Caper" (May 16, 1948) "The Navarraise Falcon" (May 23, 1948) "The Prisoner Of Zenda Caper" (May 30, 1948) "The I.Q.

Caper" (June 6, 1948) "The Honest Cop Caper" (June 13, 1948) "The Death Bed Caper" (June 20, 1948)... Listen to it free!

"The Bail Bond Caper" (June 27, 1948) "The Rushlight Diamond Caper" (July 4, 1948) "The Wheel Of Life Caper" (July 11, 1948) "The Missing Newshawk Caper" (July 18, 1948) "The Mad Scientist Caper" (July 25, 1948) "The Dry Martini Caper" (August 1 1948) "The Bluebeard Caper" (August 8, 1948) "The Critical Author Caper" (August 15, 1948) "The Bafio Cup Caper" (August 22, 1948; possibly "Vafio") "The Lawless Caper" (August 29, 1948) "The Stella Starr Caper" (September 5, 1948) "The Lazarus Caper" (September 12, 1948) "The Hot 100 Grand Caper" (September 19, 19

48) "The Dick Foley Caper" (September 26, 1948) "The Sugar Kane Caper" (October 3, 1948) "The Bostwick Snatch Caper" (October 10, 1948) "The Rumanian Con Game Caper" (October 17, 1948) "The Insomnia Caper" (October 24, 1948) "The Fairley-Bright Caper" (October 31, 1948) "The S.Q.P.

Caper" (November 7, 1948) "The Gin Rummy Caper" (November 14, 1948) "The Golden Fleece Caper" (November 21, 1948) "The Quarter-Eagle Caper" (November 28, 1948) "The Neveroff Masterpiece Caper" (December 5, 1948) "The Bouncing Betty Caper" (December 12, 1948) "The Giveaway Caper" (December 19, 1948) "The Nick Saint Caper" (December 26, 1948) "The Three-Sided Bullet Caper" (January 2 1949) "The Double Negative Caper" (January 9, 1949) "The Betrayal In Bumpus Hell Caper" (January 16, 1949) "The Main Event Caper" (January 23, 1949) "The Double Life Caper" (January 30, 1949) "The Fire

bug Caper" (February 6, 1949) "The Brothers Keeper Caper" (February 13, 1949) "The Attitude Caper" (February 20, 1949) "The Three Cornered Frame Caper" (February 27, 1949) "The Waltzing Matilda Caper" (March 6, 1949) "The Underseal Caper" (March 13, 1949) "The Trojan Horse Caper" (March 20, 1949) "The Loveletter Caper" (March 27, 1949) "The Vacation Caper" (April 3, 1949) "The Stopped Watch Caper" (April 10, 1949) "Edith Hamilton" (April 17, 1949) "The Hot Cargo Caper" (April 24, 1949) "The Battles Of Belvedere" (May 1 1949) "The Fast Talk Caper" (May 8, 

1949; aka "The Corpse In The Murphy Bed") "The Darling Daughter Caper" (May 15, 1949) "The Cartwright Clip Caper" (May 22, 1949) "The Jane Doe Caper" (May 29, 1949) "The Overjord Caper" (June 5, 1949; aka "The Corpse In The Murphy Bed) "Sam And The Guiana Sovereign" (June 12, 1949) "The Apple Of Eve Caper" (June 19, 1949) "The Goat's Milk Caper" (June 26, 1949) "The Hamburger Sandwich Caper" (July 3, 1949) "The Queen Bee Caper" (July 10, 1949) "The Cuttyhunk Caper" (July 17, 1949) "The Tears Of Night Caper" (July 24, 1949) "The Hot-Foot Caper" (July 31,

 1949) "The Champion Caper" (August 7, 1949) "The Sourdough Mountain Caper" (August 14, 1949) "The Silver Key Caper" (August 21, 1949) "The Prodigal Daughter Caper" (August 28, 1949) "The Flashback Caper" (September 4, 1949) "The Costume Caper" (September 11, 1949) "Over My Dead Body Caper" (September 18, 1949) "The Chargogagogmanchogagogchabunamungamog Caper" (September 25, 1949) SUSPENSE: THE KHANDI TOOTH CAPER (January 10, 1948-is this right?) 60 minutes Based on characters created by Dashiell Hammett Starring Howard Duff as SAM SPADE THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE (1949-50, NBC) Writers: Gil Doud, Bob Tellman Director/Producer: William Sp

ier Starring Howard Duff as SAM SPADE with Lurene Tuttle as Effie "The Junior G-Man Caper" (October 2 1949) "The Hot Hothouse Caper" (October 9, 1949) "The Pretty Polly Caper" (October 16, 1949) "Title Unknown" (October 23, 1949) "Title Unknown" (October 30, 1949) "The Cheesecake Caper" (November 6, 1949) "The Blues In The Night Caper" (November 13, 1949) "The Peacock Feather Caper" (November 20, 1949) "Title Unknown" (November 27, 1949) "The Floppsey, Moppsey and Cottontain Caper" (December 4, 1949) "Title Unknown" (December 11, 1949) "The Whispering Death Caper" (December 18, 1949) "The Canterbury Christmas 7(December

 25, 1949) "The Gorgeous Gemini Caper" (January 1 1950) "The Third Personville Caper" (January 8, 1950) "The Phantom Witness Caper" (January 15, 1950) "The Wedding Belle Caper" (January 22, 1950) "The Too Many Leads Caper" (January 29, 1950) "The Black Magic Caper" (February 5, 1950) "The Crossword Puzzle Caper" (February 12, 1950) "The Valentine's Day Caper" (February 19, 1950) "The Cornelius J.

Morningside Caper" (February 26, 1950) "The Homicidal Husband Caper" (March 5, 1950) "The Barbary Ghost Caper" (March 12, 1950) "The Emerald Eyes Caper" (March 19, 1950) "The Bay Psalm Caper" (March 26, 1950) "The Endurance Caper" (April 2 1950) "The Picture Frame Caper" (April 9, 1950) "The Kansas Kid Caper" (April 16, 1950) "The Caldwell Caper" (April 23, 1950) "The Hamite Curse Caper" (April 30, 1950) "Caper With Marjorie's Things" (May 7, 1950) "The Prodigal Son Caper" (May 14, 1950) "The Red Amapola Caper" (May 21, 1950) "The Honest Thief C

aper" (May 28, 1950) "The V.I.P.

Caper" (June 4, 1950) "The Color Scheme Caper" (June 11, 1950) "The Elmer Longtail Caper" (June 18, 1950) "The Toytown Caper" (June 25, 1950) "The Beryl Green Caper" (July 2 1950) "The Runaway Redhead Caper" (July 9, 1950) "The Man Who Knew Almost Everything Caper" (July 16, 1950) "The Stormy Weather Caper" (July 23, 1950) "The Rod And Reel Caper" (July 30, 1950) "The Bell Of Solomon Caper" (August 6, 1950) "The Missing Persons Caper" (August 13, 1950) "The Preposterous Caper" (August 20, 1950) "The Too Many Clients Caper" (August 27, 1950) "The

 Farmer's Daughter Caper" (September 3, 1950) "The Big Little Woody Caper" (September 10, 1950) "The Femme Fatale Caper" (September 17, 1950) THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE (1950-51, NBC) Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe were 'named after and inspired by black private eye' | Daily Mail Online Share this article Share Miss Ransil, who has worked on a book and film script about Samuel Marlowe, was transcribing files and letters following his death in 1991 at the age of 100 - but these have since gone missing.

The bizarre twist has left Miss Ransil desperate to find the letters, with the search focused at the moment on a warehouse in southern Los Angeles where they are thought to have been left. Classic movie: Actor Humphrey Bogart played private eye Sam Spade (left and right, with actress Mary Astor) in John Huston's 1941 film The Maltese Falcon, based on Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel of the same name Neither Mr Hammett nor Mr Chandler have ever revealed the origins of their characters’ names. Hammett calling his detective Sam Spade, a rude but common word for a black person at the time, was a joke between them Louise Ransil, historian But it has been claimed in the past that Philip Marlowe’s name came from Marlowe House at Dulwich College in south London, where Mr Chandler was educated. Samuel Marlowe, a veteran of the First World War, carried out six private investigations in the 1920s which were seen as too dirty or dangerous for white detectives.

At the time Mr Hammett and Mr Chandler were writing short stories for pulp fiction magazine Black Mask - and Samuel Marlowe wrote to them to correct procedural details in these. He then became friends with Mr Chandler - who hired him as a guide and bodyguard to research areas which were seen as 'off-limits' to white middle-class authors, according to Miss Ransil. Authors: A historian believes Jamaican Samuel Marlowe was the inspiration for the characters created by writers Dashiell Hammett (left) and Raymond Chandler (right) Speaking to The Sunday Times reporter John Harlow , Miss Ransil claimed that Mr Hammett and Samuel Marlowe got on well together. She said: ‘They were friends who loved laughing together. Hammett calling his detective Sam Spade, a rude but common word for a black person at the time, was a joke between them.’ But Miss Ransil remains annoyed that the papers have been lost - after Samuel Marlowe's house was cleared out by a crew hired by a real estate agent in 2006 following his death 15 years earlier.

Speaking to journalist Daniel Miller for the Los Angeles Times earlier this month, she said: 'It's a long and twisted tale that didn't turn out the way I’d hoped. I'm kicking myself in a lot of ways.' Read more: Sam Spade (Character) - Biography biography The content of this page was created by users. It has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. Warning! This character biography may contain plot spoilers. Visit our Character Biography Help to learn more. Character Biography History Discuss Like most of Dashiell Hammett's detective characters, Sam Spade is a man with no specific past, just a job to do and an amoral code of ethics that drives him to get it done. Hammett himself said: "Spade has no original. He is a dream man in the sense that he is what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been and in their cockier moments thought they approached.

For your private detective does not or did not ten years ago when he was my colleague want to be an erudite solver of riddles in the Sherlock Holmes manner; he wants to be a hard and shifty fellow, able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with, whether criminal, innocent by-stander or client." Unlike Hammett's most frequently used character, the unnamed "Continental Op," Spade works for himself, does not always get along with the police, and appears to have some appeal for the opposite sex. In the novel, Sam Spade gives us an unintentional insight into himself (and, some have suggested, into Hammett) during a lengthy parable narrated to Brigid O'Shaughnessy (AKA Wonderly and LaBlanc). He tells her about a case he was hired to investigate - the disappearance of a man called Flitcraft. Flitcraft had been a respectable middle class husband and father, but one day abandoned his wife in Tacoma without explanation. Spade finds Flitcraft in Spokane, where he has a new wife and a very similar life to the one he left in the previous city.

He explains to Spade that he had a moment of revelation the day he left when walking to lunch, as a large steel girder fell from a construction site and nearly killed him: "He was more shocked than really frightened. He felt as if someone had taken the lid off his life and let him look at the works." Spade says that Flitcraft realized that he had been "a good citizen and a good husband and father, not by any compulsion, but simply because he was a man who was most comfortable in step with his surroundings...The life he knew was a clean, orderly, sane, responsible affair. Now a falling beam had shown him that life was fundamentally none of these things...What disturbed him was the discovery that in sensibly ordering his affairs he had got out of step, and not into step, with life." The irony, Spade explains, is that, after coming to this moment of self-understanding, Flitcraft had wandered off to "find himself," only to return to a life very much like the one he abandoned.

"He adjusted himself to beams falling, and then no more of them fell, and he adjusted himself to their not falling." For Sam Spade, life is a kind of con-game, which each person plays on him- or herself, and moments of transcendant understanding are only momentary jogs in a machine which otherwise functions almost completely on automatic. Page last updated by Vornoff-3 , 9 years ago The Adventures of Sam Spade - Old Time Radio Shows - OTR Home > Detective Stories > The Adventures of Sam Spade The Adventures of Sam Spade was a radio series based loosely on the private detective character Sam Spade, created by writer Dashiell Hammett for The Maltese Falcon. The show ran for 13 episodes on ABC in 1946, for 157 episodes on CBS in 1946-1949, and finally for 51 episodes on NBC in 1949-1951. The series starred Howard Duff (and later, Steve Dunne) as Sam Spade and Lurene Tuttle as his secretary Effie, and took a considerably more tongue-in-cheek approach to the character than the novel or movie.

The series was largely overseen by producer/director William Spier. In 1947, scriptwriters Jason James and Bob Tallman received an Edgar Award for Best Radio Drama from the Mystery Writers of America. Before the series, Sam Spade had been played in radio adaptations of The Maltese Falcon by both Edward G. Robinson (in a 1943 Lux Radio Theater production) and by Bogart himself (in a 1946 Academy Award Theater production), both on CBS. Dashiell Hammett's name was removed from the series in the late 1940s because he was being investigated for involvement with the Communist Party. Later, when Howard Duff's name appeared in the Red Channels book, he was not invited to play the role when the series made the switch to NBC in 1950. Show Title - (64 mp3 Downloads) Broadcast Date - Description Sam Spade - Private Investigator / Detective Sam Spade Sam Spade The detective characters whether fictional or inspired by a true detective are always cherished by the people and Sam Spade is also amongst one of these cherished characters.

Sam Spade is a famous fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett, a well-known crime novel writer and creator of the work of fiction âThe Maltese Falconâ. Hammett wrote this novel in the year 1930 where he introduced this fictional character, Sam Spade and made it one of the truly treasured private eye detectives. Based on some of the Hammettâs renowned novels, a few movies were also featured starring Sam Spade as the private eye detective. Initially, the novel âThe Maltese Falconâ was published in the pulp magazine and became popular for adding more strength to the hard boiled characters of fictional detectives. Some of the writers like Raymond Chandler were inspired from Sam Spade and this could be clearly seen in their fictional characters like Philip Marlowe. Introduction Sam Spade has been depicted wonderfully in the novels and is not just an inspiration from the local detectives. The writer has blended different features and has added them to the character of Sam Spade to make it more powerful than other private eye detectives. Sam has its own way and techniques of solving the mysteries which make him quite unique as compared to other detectives.

His being intellect, aptitude, keeping all the details in mind, minute eye, determination to solve the case and being analytical while solving cases made him popular and well-accepted amongst the readers. Sam Spade has been shown as a man who faces the harder part of life and tries to make it easier for others by taking all the pains. His fortitude to solve the anonymity of a case keeps him in style and in the form of the character. Hammett has been writing several short stories, but had never introduced a character like Sam Spade. However, in âThe Maltese Falconâ when the fictional detective character was brought up, readers were quite amazed to spot one character packed with all such features. Some people believed that the character of Sam Spade was very close to actor Humphrey Bogart who was actually featured in the third season. In this season, Bogart portrayed the character as an exemplary detective which was appreciated by the people. In the year 1931, the film version of Sam Spade was featured starring Ricardo Cortez in the lead role as Spade.

This film was not released in the same year due to some reasons, so its second version was made which again could not leave any impression on the viewers. Short Stories and Other Collections Different short stories were released in the magazines where Sam was focused like âA man called Spadeâ, âToo Many Have Livedâ and âThey can Only Hang You Onceâ. Numerous films were also released starring Sam Spade as the private eye detective like âThe Maltese Falconâ, âThe Black Birdâ, âThe Strange Case of the End of Civilizationâ and lots more. This fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett proved as an inspiration for many other detective characters. The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective, Volume 1 by Hollywood 360 · OverDrive: eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries Fiction Mystery Dashiell Hammett created the character Sam Spade for his crime story The Maltese Falcon. Spade was a hard-boiled detective with cold detachment, a keen eye for detail, and an unflinching determination to exact his own justice.

For most people, Spade is most closely associated with actor Humphrey Bogart, who played him in the third and most famous film version of The Maltese Falcon. In 1946 one of radio's top producers, William Spier, brought Sam Spade to the airwaves in a radio show starring newcomer Howard Duff, who took a considerably more tongue-in-cheek approach to the character. Duff remained Spade until 1951. Dashiell Hammett lent his name to the new series, and Lurene Tuttle (and occasionally Sandra Gould) played Spade's secretary, Effie Perrine. In 1947 the program won scriptwriters Jason James and Bob Tallman an Edgar Award for Best Radio Drama from the Mystery Writers of America. Sam Spade | fictional character | Britannica.com fictional character Sam Spade, fictional character, the quintessential hard-boiled private detective, the protagonist of a novel ( The Maltese Falcon , 1930) and several short stories by Dashiell Hammett .

Humphrey Bogart (centre) as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941), … © 1941 Warner Brothers Entertainment Company; all rights reserved Learn More in these related articles: in The Maltese Falcon (film by Huston [1941]) The story told in The Maltese Falcon is an intricate one. Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) is a private detective in San Francisco. He and his partner, Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan), are hired for a large sum of money by a mysterious Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor) for a seemingly minor case: to help her trail a man, Floyd Thursby, who allegedly has disappeared with her... 3 References found in Britannica Articles Assorted References Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind.

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Question: Who created the character 'Sam Spade'?
Answer: Dashiell Hammett